Tag Archives: hit-and-run

We had a very polite guest come for lunch here at Casa de El Poeta this afternoon, who just dropped in for a brief chat and even was polite enough that he brought his own food to match his dietary restrictions. Those dietary restrictions made Mrs. the Poet a bit squeamish but it was really awesome to have such a distinctive and reclusive guest for lunch.

As you can imagine we don’t usually serve squirrel tartare here at the World HQ of WoaB, and as this is not the season for squirrel we didn’t have any laying around. Hence our relief at Mr. Band-tail bringing his own lunch. Well everyone except Mrs. the Poet, who found his menu and table manners atrocious.

One CA city is simultaneously the most dangerous and the least deadly. How de do dat? San Francisco Is Very Dangerous But Not Deadly for Cyclists, Report Says How they did that is there are a large number of bikes in a small area, and cars tend not to go very fast in streets originally designed in the mid-19th Century. So while drivers blunder about in a target-rich environment, they generally have to really work at achieving deadly effects.

IA discusses upgrading their bike laws. Bicycle light issue hits Iowa Senate Gee, you would think that there was no law requiring drivers to only drive as fast as they could stop in the distance they could see clearly.

This bit of news from the Emerald Isle on the behavior of a hit-and-run driver. Accused ‘went to UK on day cyclist killed’ It gets better than that, he also tried to move to Australia within the week before he was caught.

This little UK video shows that even cyclists can be stupid. Shocking moment cyclist in Cambridge is trapped on level crossing – VIDEO Not that there was all that much to worry about, there had to have been at least 4 feet of clearance after the cyclist got the bike over the barrier that dropped after he already crossed the tracks. I view this much like a stale green that turns into a red before the cyclist gets clear.

Speaking of truck passenger side windows, another link to that shocking report that a trucking company deliberately obstructed driver’s view to the left by covering the passenger’s side window with advertising in Enn Zed. Coroner issues finding into cyclist death I just have no words.

Yep, things are kinda slow around Casa de El Poeta today. All that has happened was really bad weather and buying groceries. And since we just dropped more than $2K paying the taxes on the joint, we were a little short when it came time to buy groceries so I don’t have any salty snacks this week. Eh, I will live, and it will give me a chance to see if my theory about excessive amounts of salty foods is contributing to the swelling in my leg that has been causing me to bleed from my scar line. This is NBD as I have been dealing with this pretty much ever since the wreck, just a touch more recently.

In contrast we get this UK story. Driver “blinded by sun” found not guilty in cyclist death I’m still trying to figure out how someone could be blinded by a low sun at 1430. Even on 1/16 in England the sun should not be that low, according to this site the sunset time was 16:22 or nearly 2 hours before the wreck, or halfway between zenith and sunset. And looking up sun angles on Wikipedia I find the sun angle to be about 22° at noon so roughly 18° (22*sin(45)) at 1430, makes this a “possibly true”. I do these things in sorta “real-time” so you can see my thought processes as I find things out.

And while we are on the “drivers are killers” tack, here is what one LEO found in the UK about a driver who was unconscious when she drove into a cyclist. Stricter driver checks ‘would not have prevented’ cyclist death, sheriff rules Apparently she had just had only one such episode before and had not yet determined that any more were forthcoming… I’m sorry but how many times do you have to drive in an unconscious state before pulling a license for being unfit to drive?

Still in the UK you would think the cyclists were the ones riding around inside the light armored vehicles weighing nearly 2 tons and killing or injuring people willy-nilly. Taxi leader says cyclists are the “Isis of London” I wonder how many taxi drivers have died after being run into by a cyclist on a bike, oh yeah that’s right, ZERO!

Welcome to another day that I pump artificially by taking portions of Monday’s Feed and holding them until now. That gives me a few more links to post today and lets me finish quicker on Monday. Otherwise I wouldn’t get Monday’s post finished until about 0200 Tuesday…

First up I’m trying to get hit-and-run with injury upgraded to the same crime as it would be had a drunk driver remained at the scene, because right now in TX a drunk driver can take years off his/her sentence by claiming ignorance of the wreck and turning themselves in the next day, after all the alcohol gets processed out of their body. Hit-and-run should be as great a crime as DUI manslaughter The only thing that can get hit-and-run investigated and prosecuted is to treat it like any other assault with a deadly weapon. One step at a time…

Who wants to live forever? How Exercise Keeps Us Young Not live “forever” but be as healthy and physically happy (I can’t say what cycling will do for emotional happiness beyond make it easier to find) as you can be until you do die.

And getting more of these may let you do more of what was recommended in the preceding paragraph. Traffic Gardens Galore “Traffic Gardens” are park-like settings with lots of paths painted up like streets and roads so that children can practice their “road sense” in an environment where mistakes would not be fatal but easily correctable. The small size and frequent intersections keep speeds low so that any collisions are more scraped knees and elbows than broken bones.

Remember that year they recalled every car because they were killing so many people? Citing Indefinite Safety Issues – Car Companies Recall Every Vehicle Ever Made If any other mode of transportation killed like motor vehicles it would be regulated into non-existence or safety. Look at trains and airplanes, when I was a pilot I had to take a flight test every 2 years if I hadn’t gotten a new rating in the meantime. When was the last time you had to take a retest at the DMV?

Given how cyclists trying to get to sidewalk bike parking are treated by the NYPD, how is this guy not dead or in a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds? Cabbie Rams Cop Cars & Drives On Midtown Sidewalk In Crazy Rush Hour Rampage Seriously, he rammed multiple cop cars and drove on the sidewalk, riding a bicycle on the sidewalk without endangering anyone gets you a ticket that looks like the interest payment on the National Debt, and so far the driver does not even have a ticket (though the TLC did suspend his hack license for 90 days).

Hit 3 cyclists from behind and then after it comes out the lights were pulled from their bikes after the wreck to make it look like they were riding ninja file a suit about how hitting them has harmed you, now going on for 2 years. Canadian Driver Who Hit Three Bicycling Teenagers Suing Victims’ Families For Emotional Trauma How about filing suit against this driver because knowing she is still out there driving makes you traumatized, Canadian readers (I know you’re out there, I get regular hits from Canadian IP addresses)?

I got some good news from the LRK about my testosterone levels. Since they had to adjust my BP meds as the result of one of the previous suppliers dropping out my testosterone levels had to be tested before my prescription for HRT could be renewed after the last time it ran out. I ran out about 3 weeks prior to my visit, so supposedly whatever my levels were would be reasonably similar to what they would be completely without HRT, and the test results were, incredibly, slightly lower than normal. That is much higher than expected after being on HRT for close to two years, which should have resulted in zero testosterone. But my healing ability seems to have kicked in and caused my hormone levels to be in the normal range for a man of my age not taking testosterone antagonists. The doctor is at a loss to explain this beyond my previously demonstrated ability to heal from injury and illness… Now all I need to do is wait on the PCP assigned by my Obamacare provider to give me a referral to a surgeon to take this lump off the back of my neck so I can get back on a bike and be able to see where I’m going. The word from the PCP is he will be taking more new patients after January 1. I have put in a request for an appointment ASAP.

Up first is a legal infrastructure report from Houston. Trial begins in cyclist’s hit-and-run death Notice the “rapist’s defence” blaming the victim for the clothing she was wearing. This has got to stop, the driver did not hit-and-run because the cyclist was wearing dark clothing, the driver hit-and-ran because the driver had no morals and left the victim to die in the street. The clothing the victim was wearing should have no more to do with that than the clothing of a rape victim.

And if it hadn’t been for the TX trial this would have been my leadoff link. Cy Vance Files Homicide Charge in Lower East Side Pedestrian Death This is noteworthy for two reasons, the first being that filing criminal charges in motor vehicle deaths is rare to the point of being mythical in NYS, there being only 2 such charges in more than 150 pedestrian deaths in 2013. The second reason is charges were filed so quickly in the process and there were no aggravating circumstance like DUI, while the victim was a homeless man staying in a shelter nearby.

Moving to CA LEO are using some sense in handing out tickets for bicycle safety. Santa Monica Police Take Steps to Curb Bicycle Accidents “Special attention will be directed toward drivers speeding, making illegal turns, failing to stop for signs and signals, failing to yield to pedestrians in cross walks and similar dangerous violations.” IOW all the things that get people on foot or riding bicycles killed or injured.

A similar campaign to the CA ticket blitz in Oz. Police blitz Sydney Rd cyclists in Brunswick And predictably, they are targeting the victims instead of the people doing the killing, like the woman wearing the helmet improperly. Wearing a helmet has never caused nor prevented a wreck, helmets are post-wreck injury factors.

If there is any doubt that people’s lives are secondary to corporate profits… Lorry safety change faces 10-year delay I have a compromise: Let the manufacturers have their delay of safety regulations, on the provision that any cyclists killed or injured by trucks made during the delay are compensated 100% for medical bills, lifetime lost income, and pain and suffering, or their heirs. Sure you can delay meeting safety regulations, so long as they pay for the damages caused by not meeting those regulations.

I don’t know exactly what is making me sick, but I’m pretty sure that I don’t have an upper respiratory infection (yet). So far everything coming out of my nose is water-clear, and depending on my hydration it has about the same viscosity as water. So, no infection, but not sure exactly what it is. I just know that when I take allergy medicine it doesn’t help much. A little, but not much. It slows down the drip but does nada for the aches and pains. I don’t quite feel like I was hit by a truck this time, but maybe a motorcycle? Lots of aches and pains there…

NYC has a massive infrastructure problem, but nobody wants to admit it. NYPD: 1,399 Pedestrians and Cyclists Injured, 16 Killed in Traffic in October 1415 dead and injured people in 31 days tells me that the infrastructure is not optimized for anything but motor vehicles and that mode is not really optimized. The 15 dead pedestrians are almost twice the number killed by bicycles in NYC since 2001. Stop and think about that for a moment. Motor vehicles have killed almost twice as many people in 31 days as bicycles in 15 years. And yet people keep insisting the bicycles are the problem?

And from CA why we have so many hit-and-runs against cyclists. Hit a cyclist, help a cyclist? These readers aren’t so sure Yep, hit ‘em and leave ‘em in the street to die because you saw a cyclist riding salmon once, or running a stop sign (nevermind that everybody runs stop signs in CA hence the sobriquet “California Stop” applied to slowing to bicycle pace and rolling the stop sign if it is clear), or riding in the middle of the lane…

More of the same from 3/4 of the way across the country. Bikers vs. Drivers: Chattanooga is ‘bike-friendly’, but there is tension between cyclists, drivers Yep, forcing a driver to lift his foot off the gas for a few seconds is a death penalty offense. Enforcible immediately upon slowing the driver down. The graphic that goes with the article is really scary. I hope they got the ISP addresses of all those threatening comments, because if one of those dudes hits a cyclist it will prove premeditation.

Pantani (was/wasn’t choose one) murdered… Doctor debunks murder theory in Pantani death investigation Seriously now, the dude was poisoned without a physical struggle, that can mean only one of two things. First was that he did it on purpose. Second that he didn’t know what was in that drug cocktail he took, because someone changed the drugs he was using… And they still haven’t established this fact one way or the other.

As I said in the headline, I need to go to the phone store in the strip mall down the street and buy a phone card to recharge my minutes. I don’t know if I have related this before, but my phone plan has an outrageous amount of minutes for a decent price, enough minutes that I could spend 8 hours a day on the phone every day for 30 days and still have 10 more hours to burn, all for $30 plus tax. This meets my needs perfectly with the phone I have, there is no way I could possibly spend that much time talking on the phone, even with my headset. I spend most of my time on the laptop anyway…

The “waddle” part of the headline is because I ate too much yesterday/last night. I woke up still bloated from all the food yesterday. It is a good thing I don’t eat like that every day, because I would look like a blimp… Throw a grey T-shirt on me with “Goodyear” down the side and …

OK I’m back from all the stores, I went across the street first to pay my Obamacare premium, then over to buy a bus pass and a top up card for my phone at the same store, then I dropped by the nail spa and paid the tip I couldn’t pay when I got my toes done Monday because “someone” had swapped a five for a ten in my toe money…

One way to make streets safer for cyclists is to put as many cops on bikes as possible. Police train to patrol Cape Coral streets by bicycle There is a reason why I call FL the most deadliest state in the US to ride a bike (or walk), and this is one way (of many that need to be implemented).

A little CA infrastructure news, laying out part of the problem. Hit-and-runs take a rising toll on cyclists Treat hit-and-run like attempted or actual murder depending on if the victim survives, and you will see a lot more solved hit-and-runs.

OK some explanation for the headline. One of the games I play in has a Sanity stat for both the character and the encounter. Levels of Sanity are 0-2 with 1 being “Normal” and levels less than .5 or greater than 1.5 being “Insane”. Interestingly enough when characters of 0.5 or below have an encounter of 1.5 or above, to the outside observer everything looks quite calm and collected. Yes it’s one of Those games, where half the combat takes place in the characters’ minds. And it’s a great deal of fun to play, although I imagine actually living in that reality would be a close approximation of Dante’s Inferno. As this applies to my home though since certain people went back to work the levels of hostility have plummeted because the main combatant is simply not there to antagonize people. Interestingly enough this is also one way to cause Sanity to return to 1 in the game play, by simply removing one of the combatants from play. Let’s see how this works out long term, because this experiment will end 2015/4/30 as we shut down the shared housing for Mrs. the Poet’s sanity (non-capitalized).

A BOLO for my OR readers. Witness photographs hit-and-run driver fleeing The driver was a male caucasian 20-30 YO with a slim build (caution, excessive levels of snark may be present) driving a dark penis-extender with 4 wheels. There seemed to be some kind of decal adorning the back window that is common among penis-extender drivers. This driver is assumed armed with a WMD, approach with caution if required to verify identity.

For some drivers, being in control of a WMD isn’t enough to threaten cyclists. SUV nearly hits five cyclists, driver pulls out gun Cheesus, you are already using a WMD to threaten and harass cyclists, you have superior speed to escape with, and you still feel the need to pull a pistol out? [insert slightly homophobic/misogynist comparison here]

For evidence-based investigations of bicycle wrecks there is nothing that beats video. Rideye: Like a plane ‘black box’ for your bike, providing evidence against dangerous drivers The technology to do this was not widely available when I was hit, but the record would have been worth the camera’s weight in gold, platinum, iridium, and silver. And a few other precious metals as well. I figure my losses are around $1 million since the wreck if you count just the direct medical costs and my lost income for the last 13 years.